On a bright and sunny Friday morning, we met with Ms. Sara Cleland and Mr. Zachary Nichols from The Co-operators, a 100% Canadian-owned insurance and financial services co-operative with over $47.3 billion in assets under management. They have been operating for over 70 years with member organizations including co-ops, credit union central, and representative farm organizations.
The Co-operators offer a variety of services to Canadians across the country through their own multi-line insurance offerings and subsidiary companies which provide solutions like property and casualty insurance, life insurance, institutional asset management, and brokerage solutions.
One of the most fascinating pivots of our discussion revolved around the organization existing as a co-operative. These are businesses owned and democratically operated by the very people using its services. The users, in this case, are called members and they benefit first by the products and solutions tailored to their needs, and second through profits which are distributed to users based on the amount of business they conduct with the co-operative.
During the meeting, we also discussed the challenges that The Co-operators face and their initiatives to continue pushing the envelope, namely in the business of insurance. We were intrigued to learn about the innovation that they are consistently engaged in, such as with home and auto safety incentives!
We thank Ms. Cleland, Mr. Nichols, and The Co-operators for the fantastic meeting and continued support of the programme!